From Bridgeport, Connecticut 

Shelton Benjamin v. Zack Ryder

      The announcers made the point of mentioning that if Shelton wins, he becomes the number one contender. Rosa was out with Ryder once again. Shelton took the early advantage. He hit a suplex for an early two count. Ryder tried a monkey flip but Shelton came out of it on his feet. Shelton then used a Samoan drop for a near fall. Benjamin then no sold an atomic drop and hit a body slam. Shelton hit an overhead suplex for a near fall. Ryder got a brief advantage and headed to the top. But Benjamin hit a kick which sent Ryder off the ropes and to the floor as the match went to break. Returning, they showed Rosa provided a distraction on the floor allowing Ryder to hit a leg lariat. Ryder got a near fall off of an Irish whip. He then connected with a splash off of the middle rope. He then hit a Superfly splash off of the top rope which got a near fall. Benjamin then made his comeback with a Stinger splash and a German suplex. He then caught Ryder and power bombed him in the corner. Shelton then hit paydirt to get the win and become the number one contender.

Shelton d. Ryder, Pin, 13:02, ***. 

      After the match and after another commercial break, Christian came out. He said that there would be one tables match, one ladder match, one chairs match (??) and one TLC match (which is the only one of the four not for a singles championship). The champion then challenged Shelton to a match for the ECW championship at TLC in the ladder match. He mentioned that Shelton and he would be in every other clip of a highlight reel of ladder matches (which isn't much of a hyperbole). Christian then said he wanted to steal the show at TLC. Shelton accepted and said that he would become the new ECW champion. That has the potential to be one of the very best WWE matches on pay-per-view this year. They also used that as a way to build up the match as opposed to a feud as both men are babyfaces. On a minor note, this does show the silliness of having Shelton Benjamin losing to Zack Ryder last week on Superstars since at the time I would wager WWE had no idea that Shelton would be the next number one contender.

      Backstage, William Regal complained to Jackson and Kozlov that he should be the number one contender for the championship. He gave them a pep talk about the importance of beating Yoshi Tatsu tonight. 

Vance Archer v. Alex Reynolds

      This was the same Archer squash which we have seen for weeks now with the bonus of a reverse chin lock in the middle. He finished with the reverse DDT as usual.

Archer squash, 2:30. 

      They went to the Raw Rebound which focused on last night's storyline which led to Sheamus becoming the number one contender. Like many others, I cannot say enough good things about the work Jesse Ventura did last night. Other guest hosts have been entertaining, but Ventura is the first one who actually helped generate interest in a pay-per-view for me.

      And now for the antithesis of all that, it's the Abraham Washington Show with Matt Hardy as guest. So, apparently it's not just "special" Raws where the rules of the brand extension do not matter anymore. He cracked on the fans by saying everyone looked like a dog through discussing the film "Twilight: New Moon." He then brought out Matt Hardy. Washington was disappointed that it wasn't Jeff Hardy who he had as a guest. Matt said he was disappointed that Washington wasn't Conan O'Brien. This was all a plug for Matt being on the show "Scare Tactics" which is the lead-in for ECW in the United States. Matt was actually pretty good in his role here.  

Yoshi Tatsu v. William Regal

      Yoshi got the better of a standing exchange with uppercuts and kicks. Regal came back with an elbow out of the corner. The referee pulled Regal off of Yoshi as he was working him over near the ropes. That allowed Yoshi to come out of left field with his roundhouse kick for the sudden finish. After the match, Kozlov and Jackson hit the ring and chased Yoshi off. Regal started talking down to Jackson and Kozlov. Kozlov pointed his finger at Jackson as if to blame him for the loss. Jackson then hit uranages on both Kozlov and Regal to end the show. So the match was just a precursor to lead into this angle.

Yoshi d. Regal, Pin, 2:12.

      For what it's worth, this show was surprisingly light on wrestling this week with only one match going more than two and a half minutes. Excluding the time lost during commercials, there was only about 14 minutes of wrestling on the show.